Australian Open Letter

OPEN LETTER
The Premier of Queensland
Queensland Minister for Health
Lord Mayor of Brisbane
Deputy Lord Mayor of Brisbane
Councillors, all Cities and Shires of Queensland

We wish to express our grave concerns regarding renewed proposals to fluoridate Queensland’s water supplies. Fluoridation began at a time when asbestos lined our pipes, when lead was added to petrol, and DDT was regarded as safe and effective. These chemicals have now been banned, but fluoridation remains untouched (www.fluoridealert.org/absurdity.htm).

Research is now raising doubts about fluoridation’s effectiveness. Data compiled by the World Health Organization shows tooth decay has declined at a similar rate in all Western Countries, irrespective of each country’s water or salt fluoridation status (www.fluoridealert.org/WHO-DMFT.htm).

It is extraordinary that the same people who reject abundant global evidence about the association between fluoride ingestion and organ damage (e.g. to bones, teeth, glands, or immune system), embrace the questionable science used to support its benefits. They ignore the many confounding possible influences in this research. This includes sugar consumption (averaging 1 kg per week per person in Australia) much of which is hidden, other nutritional influences, general dental hygiene, use of floss and movements in population.

Recent studies by several eminent researchers strongly suggest that fluoride works primarily by topical means through direct action on the surface of the teeth via toothpaste, or gels used in dental treatments (www.slweb.org/bibliography.html see: XIII, ‘topical versus systemic effects’), (Centers for Disease Control {CDC}1999 and 2001). Ingestion of fluoride through drinking fluoridated water is not essential nor effective for caries reduction.

Hardy Limeback, PhD, DDS, BSc, (Associate Professor and Head, Preventive Dentistry, University of Toronto and Past President of the Canadian Association for Dental Research) apologised in 1999 for inadvertently misleading both his colleagues and dental students in his support for fluoridation. Addressing them he concluded: “For the past 15 years, I had refused to study the toxicology information that is readily available to anyone. Poisoning our children was the furthest thing from my mind” (www.fluoridealert.org/news/1537.html).

We strongly reject the notion that placing a chronic poison in our water supplies is clever preventive medicine.

We represent 1500 doctors, dentists, scientists and others working in the interests of public health who are primarily interested in prevention and early intervention in disease processes.

The question of fluoridation was considered with care, openness and good representation by the Lord Mayor’s Task Force in 1997 which came down clearly against fluoridating Brisbane’s water supply (www.fluoride-journal.com/98-31-4/314-232.htm). It is astounding that this issue could again be raised in Queensland in an apparently co-ordinated national campaign. No new evidence has been put forward to our knowledge that would warrant a revision of the 1997 decision.

We will urge Queenslanders to study the evidence showing potential serious harm from long-term fluoride ingestion and to inform their councillors and state members how they feel about this matter.

Russell L Blaylock MD
Neurosurgeon and Neuroscientist
Advanced Nutritional Concepts
Past Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Visiting Professor of Biology Belhaven College
Jackson Mississippi USA
“This is to plea with you not to fluoridate your water supplies. I am a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist who has studied the issue of effects of water fluoridation on the developing brain as well as adult brain. Fluoridation of drinking water is a grave mistake and health hazard.”

The NZ School Dental Statistics are the most robust set of data we have on dental health in New Zealand. The Ministry of Health have now published the 2015 data which show no difference in decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.
See Graphs